Ways
to Achieve Equality in Society
By: Jesse Guzman
2010 Summer Institute
Abstract:
Students will review two events in the
Civil Rights era. The first event will
be school segregation. Students will
analyze primary sources. Some examples are pictures of school segregation and
court documents involving school segregation in Chicago Public schools. The second will be discrimination in hiring
practices. Students will review
documents from the JC Penney’s protests in Champaign, Illinois. In the course of this lesson, students will
complete document analysis sheets, comparison chart, and write a reflective
essay. Most importantly, students will
learn ways people and groups cause change and reform in society.
Essential
Questions:
Why does racism and discrimination
exist in U.S. society?
What are legal ways to protest?
How can people change unjust laws?
Assessment:
Students will be assessed in two
forms. First, students will complete a
comparison chart of the two events to ensure they understand the events. Students will compare the: who, where, when,
problem, and solution. The major
assessment will be the reflective essay.
Students will answer the essential questions: 1. Why does racism and
discrimination exist in U.S. Society? 2. What are legal ways to protest? 3. How
can people change unjust laws? 4. Why is
this important to learn? (This is an additional question.)
Activities/Setting
the Purpose: (Duration
2 days and 45 minute class periods)
1.
Setting the Purpose:
Students should already have background knowledge of the National Civil
Rights Movement. Students should be
asked to recall their knowledge.
Students could be required to complete a KWL. Some possible questions: What is discrimination?
What is racism? Who are leaders of the Civil Rights Movement? Who encounters racism and discrimination?
2.
As
a whole class, the teacher will present the students with several photos of
segregated classrooms. Students will
discuss what they see and their interpretations. Students will also complete a
document analysis sheet.
The
photos are from the Summer Institute 2010 CD: School Segregation – NARA, Students1, Students2, and Students3.
3.
Next, students will read the formal complaint issued
in court by James William Webb against the Board of Education of the City of
Chicago. This could be done as a whole
class or in groups. Students will take
notes and/or complete a document analysis sheet. The requests made by James William Webb should
be noted and discussed as a class.
The
document is from the Summer Institute 2010 CD: NARA documents – James William
Webb Case, 16C1895_complaint_dec_judgement.
4.
Students
will review another photo of people protesting in St. Louis, MO.
The
photo is from the Summer Institute 2010 CD: School Segregation – NARA,
stlouisprotest.
Day 2
5.
Students
will then review three documents about the J.C. Penny’s protest. Student should complete the document analysis
sheets and discuss what happened and the resolution to the problem.
The
documents are from the Summer Institute 2010 CD: Champaign County Archives-
WhyPicketPenneys, PenneysMemo, and Cease Picketing.
6.
Once
students have completed their evaluations of all the documents, students should
complete a comparison/contrast chart.
Students should compare school segregation and hiring
discrimination. Students should draw on
the sources they evaluated and give particular examples from the photos, James
William Webb Case, and the J.C. Penney’s picketing. Students should focus on who, where, when,
problem, and solution.
7.
After
the comparison chart has been successfully completed, the reflective essay
should be assigned. The two page essay
will require students to answer the essential questions: 1. Why does racism and
discrimination exist in U.S. Society? 2. What are legal ways to protest? 3. How
can people change unjust laws? 4. Why is
this important to learn? (This is an additional question.) This could be assigned as homework or as
in-class assignment the next day.
Analysis
of Local Primary Sources:
Students will evaluate primary sources
from the local newspaper about the J.C. Penney’s picketing and the company’s
official response to the picketing here in Champaign, Illinois. Students will also read the official
complaint submitted to the U.S. District Court by James William Webb, Jr., ET
AL against the Board of Education in Chicago, Illinois and evaluate the photo
of people protesting in St. Louis,
Missouri.
Ties
to National Primary Sources:
Students will analysis photos taken in
Kansas that demonstrate school segregation.
Students will use all the documents to make connections to school
segregation and hiring discrimination across the country. Students will not
only make connections to the National Civil Rights Movement of that time period
but to issues that still exist today in the country.
List
of Sources:
Summer Institute 2010 CD
